I decided to try to quit smoking yesterday. So before I went to bed I tore up what I had left and threw them away. What a better motivator than hunting season? (Well, except for the post about the guy who smokes and hunts and somehow manages to kill deer despite that....) That post had me rationalizing that I don't need to, of course. ack.

I quit a few years ago. Just decided one day I don't want to do it anymore. The prices are ridiculous too. Ever since, I have one every once in awhile if Im out drinking with the boys. You really notice just how disgusting it is after you have that first one after months of not smoking. I will never go back to smoking again.

I was able to quit right on the spot. Some quit for a short while, then smoke a pack after 2 weeks. Some take their time and have one or two a day then eventually to none a day. Whatever works for you, do it. Short term goals are the key. Achieve those small victories everyday and you will get so much closer to the finish line.

I smoked for 20 years before quiting cold turkey on September 12, 2009 Not that I am counting or anything! LOL!

So, I tried to quita few times beofre and obviously failed.

This past time, it worked. I think you have to try to quit a few times before you suceed so that you know what went wrong trhe first time.

In my case, the first time, I didn't really want to quit, it was just something I thought I should do. .....but I didn't really WANT to.

The next time I quit, I thought I could ration myself into stopping. Figured that if I smoked only one cigarett per hour the first day, only one every two hours the day after that, one every three hours the day after that, ect....that I would be quit in a week or so. Yeah, that didn't pan out either.

When I finally quit, I didn't even really plan it. Matter of fact, luck had alot to do with it.

Turns out I smoked my last cigarett just right before going to bed. The next moring, I already had an 8 hopur head start on quiting. WEll, smokes were terribly expensive at the stores by my house, so I decided to wait til I got to work ( 30 miles away) to buy some. As I got a mile or so from my office, I decided to go ahead and load up my doors ( I install garage doors) and just get my cigarettes on the way to the first job. Then I decided to wait til I got close to te job ( 45 miles away) .

Somehow, I stretched it out til finishing up for the day and heading home. At that point, I didn't look at it as a matter of quiting smoking, but as a personal challenge of will power.

" I am stronger than the urge to smoke!"

Haven't smoked a single cigarette since. Did not cheat once...at all. Not even a single puff.

But I also learned something about my habit: My mental habit was by far stronger than my physical habit.

I was used to lighting up after eating, when getting in my truck to drive, while fishing, when bored, or after getting in my truck after packing up my tools after working all day.

My biggest addiction was to the ROUTINE of smoking, not so much to the nicotine.

Well I am making progress. I don't smoke for a couple of days, then smoke a little, then a couple more days. Each time I make it longer, and smoke less when I do. I agree it's definitely the psychological aspect of it that gets to me, that's what wears me down. But then again, I didn't plan to get too serious about it until after today, since I have to spend the day with a couple of heavy smokers. For now I just concentrate on smoking less, and testing myself by going as long as I can without one, and it keeps getting easier. I think that so long as I just keep it as my focus, and then buckle down after I get through today, I can do it.

I appreciate the feedback from you guys. I think a great time to really work on this is coming right up, since I will be hunting, and no way am I going to smoke out there. I would rather hunt than smoke any day! So there is my motivation.

Smoking is a terrible thing. It will kill you. It can be really hard to do. I finally quit in 05, but it took multiple tries to do it. Scoutfish made a great point when he said that YOU have to really want to quit. When I was able to actually see myself as a non-smoker, that was what turned the corner for me. It was purely mental at that point. When the urge to smoke came, I would do something else and the urge would go away. (The urge will come right back, but I kept deferring it and after a while the urge was not as strong.) It got to the point when I had not smoked in 2-3 days. It had been a good 40 yrs since I had gone without a smoke that long. I was very proud of myself. Now I felt motivated to extend that string of days. Before I knew it I felt for the first time that I really was going to quit, that I was not a smoker anymore. And trust me, I'll never smoke again. I don't ever want to go through that again.Smoking becomes so intertwined in your life's activities that it is more than just nicotine. Try to avoid those things when you can. It will get easier, but there is lots of suffering in the beginning. Good luck. You are young. Don't waste years of your life.Dennis